Olympics dreams turned to nightmares for Herbert and Dlagnev

Jake Herbert was “officially” eliminated from competition

Jake Herbert, like many a wrestler, has heard to never put a possible victory in the hands of an official. The 185-pound native of Pennsylvania sadly was reminded of that sermon Saturday in the ExCel Arena where officials appeared to play a big part of his losing two of three matches in his first Olympic experience and failed to medal.

After defeating Cuba’s Humberto Arencibia, 1-4, 7-0, 1-1, in a Round of 16 matches, Herbert lost his quarterfinal to Azerbaijan’s Sharif Sharifov, 4-0, 6-0, as official accentuated the shutout loss

The key point in the match came with 12 seconds left in a scoreless second period as the 2011 World champion shot in on Herbert with a double. It appeared that Herbert stopped the action and appeared to  reverse-gut Sharifov for three points, before giving up a couple exposure points of his own in the scramble that ensued.

But the officials, after a long deliberation and protest from the U.S. coaches ruled that Sharifov scored the points off his takedown and another two for exposure before one more point ended the period with a technical fall..

TO READ THE REST OF THIS STORY, SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE WIN E NEWS

Tervel Dlagnev’s shot for gold was not good enough

LONDON, England — Tervel Dlagnev nearly gave it his best shot to bring home an Olympic medal at 264.5 pounds at the ExCel Arena.

Sadly, the heavyweight from Arlington, Texas, learned first-hand that nearly good is not good enough … when Dlagnev won his first two matches, including a quarterfinal bout over 2011 World champion Aleksei Shemarov of Bulgaria, only to drop his final two matches, including the bronze medal bout on Aug. 11.

“I don’t have anything to say,” said a dejected Dlagnev after losing the bronze medal match to Iran’s Komeil Ghasemi (Iran), 4-0, 0-1, 1-0. “I didn’t perform, that’s it.”

Dlagnev, who earned a bronze medal in last September’s World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey  — where he defeated two-time Olympic champion Artur Taymazov of Uzebekistan — may have also had his confidence shaken in these Olympic semifinals when Taymazov countered a single attempt by Dlagnev with about 15 seconds left in the scoreless first period and cradled the American for a pin five seconds later.

TO READ THE REST OF THIS STORY, SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE WIN E NEWS